How Do You Tell Him?
by NCISgirl1527
Summary: Your best friend is leaving. Leaving the Lab to be with another woman who is also your friend. How do you tell him you love him? GSR and Grillows.


_**I don't know what gave me the idea. It is kind of random. I like it. GSR and Cath/Grissom**_

_**Spoilers: One to Go (which I have not actually seen so I blame any screw ups on Wikipedia)**_

_**Disclaimer: Not mine. Never has been. Never will be.**_

Lady Heather was relaxing on the couch when the doorbell rang. She looked up surprised because she was not expecting any visitors. It was late on a Friday night and she did not have that many friends. Curiously she walked across the room and opened the door. When she opened the door she found herself face to face with Catherine Willows. 'This is getting weirder by the minute,' she thought before telling Catherine, "Come in."

There was a pause while Lady Heather went in to the kitchen and made two cups of tea. When she came out she handed a cup to Catherine who was now sitting on the couch, opposite where Heather had been sitting when she arrived. Heather sat back down and turned to Catherine.

She had met the CSI a few times before, but it had always been for cases. The only member on the CSI team she had ever seen outside work was Grissom. He had come to her house about a year ago after Sarah Sidle had left the crime lab. She looked at Catherine's expression and realized that it was strikingly similar to the one Grissom had worn one that visit. Heather had been waiting for Catherine to speak, but it seemed unlikely to happen soon so she prompted her. "I am going to take it that this not a work related visit."

"Why would you think that?" Catherine asked even though Heather was right and this was not a work related visit.

"I have only seen you a few times, but whenever you are working a case you are very driven. Right now you are looking lost and confused," Heather concluded and watched in slight amusement as Catherine glanced toward the mirror. "So, what's up?"

"It is a social call," Catherine conceded. "I need to talk to someone outside the lab and I don't have many friends outside work."

"I would have thought someone like you would have many friends," Heather mused.

"I am a single mother who works the graveyard shift at the crime lab," Catherine pointed out, and Lady Heather nodded in agreement.

"So, why did you come to me?" Lady Heather asked interestedly.

"Because you know Grissom," Catherine replied quietly.

Catherine's reply was short, but it caused several pieces to fall into place for Heather. Something was going on with Grissom and Catherine cared more about him then she had ever let on to anyone. That also explained why Catherine was here and not talking to someone at the lab.

"Has something happened to Grissom?" Heather asked. She was going to figure this out.

"No…Yes…well sort of. Not exactly _to_ him," Catherine said then seeing Heather's look of confusion added, "He quit."

"What!" Heather said surprised. She had not thought there was anything Catherine could say that would surprise her, but she had been wrong.

"Yea I know. That was my thought exactly," Catherine said sadly. "He worked for the crime lab longer than I have."

Heather knew that but it was not what was troubling her. "What could have convinced Grissom to leave? He loves the lab," she remarked confusedly.

"Apparently he loves Sarah more," Catherine remarked only slightly grimly. She was trying so hard to keep the resentment out of her voice but she knew she was slipping.

Suddenly all the pieces fell into place for Heather. Gil Grissom had decided to follow Sarah Sidle to where ever she was. That meant he had left the lab and his team. He had not looked back. Catherine had worked with him for nearly fifteen years, and in that time she had grown to care for him as more than a colleague. That left just one unresolved question in Heather's mind. "Do you love him?" she asked gently hoping that her suspicions were right, but also hoping they were wrong.

Catherine had been looking into the bottom of her teacup, but looked up surprised at Heather's question. "Yea," she replied sadly, "I think I do."

Heather felt sorry for the woman sitting in front of her. She had met a lot of people in bad situations, but none quite like this. It was a little out of her field, but still. It was a love triangle. Sarah loved Grissom, and Grissom loved Sarah, but Catherine also loved Grissom.

After several minutes of silence Catherine spoke, "Sarah is one of my best friends in the world, and she is so happy. Grissom is happy, too. I can't take that away from them. I just can't." Now Heather was both sorry for and admiring Catherine. She had never heard the CSI sound so hurt or confused before, but Catherine was determined not to hurt her friends. It took guts. "How do you tell your best friend you love him?" Catherine asked the room at large.

"I doesn't matter how I do it," Heather told Catherine, "It matters how you do it."

"That's simple," Catherine said as she walked to the door and opened it. "I don't."

Heather nodded sadly as the door closed behind Catherine. "I knew you were going to say that," she mused knowing that Catherine was still standing right out side the door. "It will work out. Someday, somehow, it will work out," Heather promised before turning of the light and heading for her bedroom.

Outside Catherine leaned against the brick wall letting a few stay tears fall on her cheeks and prayed to God that Heather was right. That things would work out.

End of this story. There will be a squeal. I don't know when I will write it but I will. Oh well please review. Side note. I know Catherine may be a little out of caracter but oh well.


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